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movie reviews by Dr John Ruhland
Film Festival Documentaries
Several films screened at the 2002 Seattle film festivals will
interest many Free Press readers. My favorite recent festival film has
been Blue Vinyl, directed by Judith Helfand and Daniel Gold, which
appeared at this year's Seattle Jewish Film Festival. It's a riveting
and often humorous documentary on the toxicity of polyvinyl chloride
(PVC). Helfand's Michael Moore-like style allows her access to people
not ordinarily seen in conventional media. In Blue Vinyl she
investigates the true cost of the vinyl siding that her parents
applied to their Long Island home, both to workers and to the
environment. Activists would be well advised to request their local
library order it. Available from Next Wave Films, 310-890-3640.
Nuclear Films
A Bomb in the Basement by Michael Karpin, which had its US premiere at
the Seattle Jewish Film Festival, gives some insight into the
militaristic thinking which spawned Israel's atomic bomb. Somewhat
loosely organized, it is the only available film on Israel's
development of the bomb.
Other films about The Bomb that you may want to check out: The Atomic
Bomb Movie: Trinity and Beyond, directed by Peter Kuran in 1995, shows
why the US cancer rate might be so high. The 1982 Atomic Cafe by
Rafferty and Loader, is a documentary on US government propaganda
films during the atomic age. These are both available at the Seattle
Public Library on video, and the latter may be available at many video
rental shops.
Anti-War Documentaries
The Good War, and Those who Refused to Fight It: The Story of WWII
Conscientious Objectors, by Rick Tejada-Flores and Judith Ehrlich, was
already on public television in January, and then was picked up by the
Seattle International Film Festival. It is available at the Seattle
Public Library. Some 16 million Americans served in the armed forces
during WWII, and there were 42,000 conscientious objectors, of whom
7,000 were jailed for their beliefs. We learn how these COs went on to
fight for peace and civil rights, and against apartheid and nuclear
proliferation. Some "chose" to become subjects of horrible medical
experiments. In conjunction with this film, I recommend seeing In the
Shadow of the Reich: Nazi Medicine directed by John Michalczyk 1997,
which documents how German doctors bought into the Brave New World of
eugenics, and describes how the movement was initiated within the US
and supported by Rockefeller and Carnegie.
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